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Friday, August 21, 2009

Minimal Retreat Requirements

By Joseph Parish

When we are in the process of bugging out to our retreat do we really need a spacious home with all the luxuries that we are used to? After all modern inventions tend to use vast sums of energy in order to run properly.

There have been many folks in our history who accomplished a great deal with the bare minimum of space. Imagination also provides each of us with the ability to do a lot with so little while making maximum use of products for which the use we employ may not necessarily be that for which the item was designed for.

Simplicity is often the key to inexpensive survival. You can find even today that many of the areas within the Ozarks use electricity that is produce by a small generator or perhaps even a very strong car battery. These are not rich people by any stretch of the imagination and as such they have learned to conserve each and every penny that they have. Naturally their homes are not equipped with all the modern appliances that we have in ours. They have a fairly small home with few rooms.

They may even have a windmill that provides them with a sufficient amount of electric power for lights and possibly a refrigerator all for the small sum of $5,000. If you boast your expenses a bit to the $10 grand mark you may even be able to include a water pump system that operates your nearby well.

If you plan to use a windmill system it would be well for you to adhere to some simple hints. To be effective a windmill system will usually require a constant source of wind so this is one item to bear in mind when figuring out your power requirements for your retreat. These windmills would be set up to recharge a series of battery packs that provide the energy to several of your most important pieces of equipment.

If you have too much wind in your vicinity it is likely that you will want to install a brake on your windmill in order to stop it every now and then. Windmills should be shut down if there is a bit too much wind to turn the blades.

There are many ways that we can possibly downsize when we are initially designing our bug out retreats. Since at this point we may have decided that we do not require such large quarters to live in then space is certainly at a premium. An interesting concept that has been employed by people in the past is the idea of under-floor storage.

Under floor storage is something that you should plan for when you are initially drawing up the plans for your retreat home. You could very easily dig a hole and wall it up with concrete blocks. It would serve several purposes for storage as well as for emergency locations from adverse weather. The trap door would lead to the flooring above in the main room which could have a throw carpet placed over it to essentially hide it from prying eyes.

If you have the extra funds and you really wish to get fancy you could easily include one or two of the steel shipping boxes. They could very simply be constructed to provide a good emergency home. The boxes usually cost in the vicinity of $12,000 dollars each. Although at the size that they are you may end up using at least two of them.

So as you can see it is possible to obtain a basic but affordable home for use as your emergency retreat.